20 Days to go!

I am getting closer and closer to December 30, which is the date that I begin my liquid diet. 20 DAYS TO GO! 

Now, for those that are just joining me for this blog, the liquid diet’s purpose is to prepare my body for the surgery by shrinking my liver and clearing my intestines. It’s gross, I KNOW, but I would rather follow the diet than to have a complication during surgery which involves the leaking of my intestine’s contents into my body cavity. Eew.

So, let me fill everyone in on what I have done to prepare for the liquid diet coming up. The first thing that I did was to start thinking about the stressed suggestion that I try to take in as much protein as I can before and after the surgery, lest I lose my hair…

I compared all of the protein shakes out there on the market while excluding Special K because that one has too much sugar in it. I chose Ensure High Protein because it offers 25g of protein and 5g of sugar. Don’t worry if you can’t find a shake with extremely low or no sugar, my surgeon’s office said that would be a miracle. So I bought 4 x 4 packs of the shakes and I’ll get more if I run out… or return them to the store if I hate them. 

I bought a protein powder that I can A. add to my milk and make chocolate milk, and B. add to my shakes at lunch. I bought chocolate, but I’m going to go get vanilla as well. The powder that I chose was Muscle Milk because the reviews were good and no one complained that it tastes like arse, which was something I deeply want to avoid. Two scoops of MM powder gives you 35g of protein, so I figured that when you add milk and fruits, I should be at about 70-80g of protein so far during the day when coupled with the Ensure shake for breakfast and my morning coffee with chocolate protein powder added.

I bought a travel sized blender made by Oster that was on sale at Kroger for 19.99 which you can find here if you want to buy one for yourself. This was my way of making work life easier for me before, during, and after surgery. I won’t have the time or money to be trying to run off to a smoothie place, and I’m not sure they’d take my dietary needs into consideration even if I could.

All of that should get me pretty close, if not over 90g of protein a day, and maybe I should throw in a multi-vitamin as well to really nail it. I have to be honest, I will do what it takes to keep my hair. Speaking of my hair, I purchased new vitamins to aid hair growth called Hairfinity. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of length I can achieve in a year.

In any event, that is what I have been working towards in my mind. I have also, fleshed out my surgical timeline and now have a finished product that I can share with you all to adapt and use with your own insurance companies. If you use it, please just give my credit for it because I obsessive-compulsively pored over it.